Reiki, the Japanese practice of spiritual development is a path to enlightenment and knowing your true self. When we all at some level know who we are, why is this teaching broken into the three levels rather than taught in one go?
Kensho
[ken-sho] Japanese
(n.) the zen experience or enlightenment, when one’s own nature is seen for what it truly is.
Having taught Reiki now for 7 years, I have first hand experience of watching the awareness of Reiki and the consciousness of the general population rise. I would still expect however, if I was to take a person off the street and talk to them about enlightenment, to get mostly a blank stare.
Enlightenment is a concept that most people know about, but not necessarily one that they have had a perpetual lasting experience of – yet.
By breaking the teaching of Reiki into three distinct stages, Usui gave students the opportunity to learn the practice in bite size pieces – with time between each course to go away and practice so they could develop their awareness and their skills.
In each course, a new concept is shared. In Level 1, you learn about the history of Reiki, that it is a spiritual not a religious practice, the Reiki Precepts and that through become aware of the self, we are able to balance and harmonise our own energy.
In Level 2, you learn 3 of the 4 Reiki symbols, for deepening our awareness of ourselves. In level 2 additional meditation practices are introduced to deepen the ability to stay in a Reiki state perpetually, and being a vessel for greater levels of energy when working on ourselves and others.
In Level 3, we learn the 4th Reiki symbol. The invitation of this symbol is to commit to having a permanent awareness of our perpetual consciousness. This means training ourselves to put our attention on who we are rather than drift off into thought and distraction. At this level, we become a deeply healing influence on others simply through our very nature. We know that we and the cosmos are one and that the path to true enlightenment is to more and more discover who we are.
As you can see, for many to jump to the third level, without the other two in between, would be too much of a leap without the practice time and time to let go of our own misconceptions and beliefs.
Those that choose to go through the levels report a deepening of their understanding, energy flow and resourcefulness with each level.
Whilst none of them are necessary to be enlightened – some people are already – for most a pathway and a set of techniques to help them to realise their true potential facilitates the journey and gives it meaning and structure.
My name is Becci Godfrey, and I am a Reiki Master Healer and Teacher. I have been practising healing all my life, and have been a Reiki Practitioner since 2010.
My passion in life has always been healing and I am always looking for new ways to share that passion.
To find out more about me and the services I offer, check out the rest of this website and feel free to contact me if you have anything you would like to ask!
Reiki Mark Cross 